


the sweetest thing

by emmerrr



Series: Only Fools Rush In [17]
Category: Raven Cycle - Maggie Stiefvater
Genre: Fluff, Implied sexy times, M/M, Valentine's Day, it gets angsty for like the briefest of seconds? but maybe not it depends on your definition
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-02-14
Updated: 2018-02-14
Packaged: 2019-03-17 22:45:18
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,311
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13668873
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/emmerrr/pseuds/emmerrr
Summary: For a moment they stared at each other in silence, then Adam, smiling sheepishly, said, “Surprise?”--In which Adam makes a surprise visit home. For Valentine's Day.





	the sweetest thing

**Author's Note:**

> if you want a mood setter while reading this, then may i suggest this: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ott1Q6zroD0  
> (you are my home by man of leisure)

It was 3am when Adam finally arrived back at the Barns.

The journey had been long and hellish, and a couple of times Adam had genuinely feared that the shitbox was going to conk out on him, but it kept trucking along. Adam was buoyed along by the many mix-tapes Ronan had made for him, and they sang him home.

The house was dark, naturally, as it was the middle of the night. The middle of the night had been and gone, in fact. It would be dawn before Adam knew it, and he still hadn’t slept. He felt exhausted as he quietly let himself in with the key Ronan had given him, locking the door again behind him. He left his duffel bag in the entrance way, resolving to deal with it in the morning, and then he crept silently upstairs to Ronan’s room.

The door creaked ever so slightly when he pushed it open, but Adam managed to minimise it when he shut it again.

Ronan was asleep, his jaw slack and his features untroubled. Adam had initially thought the chances quite high that Ronan would still be awake, as his sleeping routine was far from habitual, but this was a better outcome. Adam much preferred it when Ronan managed to sleep untroubled.

He stripped down to his boxers and crawled into bed. Ronan stirred as the bed dipped; his eyes cracked open.

“Adam?” It was barely a whisper.

“Shhh,” Adam hushed him gently. “Go back to sleep.”

Ronan’s eyes shuttered closed again, but he smiled, barely conscious, and murmured, “I’m dreaming. It’s a good dream.”

He reached for Adam without opening his eyes again and Adam snuggled close, feeling Ronan’s arm loop loosely over his waist. He tangled their legs together and tucked his head under Ronan’s chin.

Ronan’s breathing leveled out again almost immediately, and a few minutes later, Adam, too, was fast asleep.

***

Getting poked repeatedly in the cheek wasn’t Adam’s favourite way to wake up.

He swatted lazily at his assailant without opening his eyes. “Fuck off,” he grumbled.

“Fuck you, Parrish, wake up.”

Immediately, Adam remembered where he was and jolted upright, excitement swirling within him before he got a good look at Ronan’s confused expression. Belatedly, he registered the anxious tone to Ronan's voice.

For a moment they stared at each other in silence, then Adam, smiling sheepishly, said, “Surprise?”

Ronan loosed a breath. “Is it you, then? It’s really you? You’re—” He broke off and looked around the room, as if to check that he really was awake in his own bedroom at the Barns. “You’re here?”

Adam nodded, wrapped a hand around the back of Ronan’s neck and pulled him close, capturing his lips in a kiss. Ronan indulged him then let out a shaky sigh and rested his forehead against Adam’s.

“Jesus,” he said. “Jesus. You scared the shit out of me, I thought I’d dreamt you. I thought—” He shook his head. “Doesn’t matter. You’re here.” He smiled at last, kissing Adam properly and then pushing him back down, pressing him into the mattress.

As enjoyable as it was, Adam immediately felt guilty. He should have woken Ronan up properly the night before. With nothing but a hazy memory of what must have felt like a dream of Adam showing up, it made perfect sense for Ronan to assume that the Adam he’d woken up to was one that could have been accidentally pulled from a dream. Especially when the real Adam, for all Ronan knew, was hundreds of miles away.

“Ronan,” he gasped, wrenching his mouth away, “wait.”

Blue eyes snapped to Adam’s immediately. “Parrish?”

“I’m sorry, I didn’t think, I should have called or something to let you know I was coming. But it’s really me, I promise. My car’s outside, you can check.”

Ronan kissed his cheek. “I believe you, Adam.” He grinned. “I’d know you anywhere. You just caught me unawares when I was half asleep. Now, I am very, _very_ awake.” He whispered the last part into Adam’s right ear and then kissed a line down his neck.

“So it’s not a bad surprise?” Adam asked, embarrassingly breathless already.

“It’s a good surprise.” Ronan dotted kisses across Adam’s collar bone. “A very fucking good surprise.”

Ronan took his sweet time taking Adam apart, just because he liked to make him squirm. Not that Adam was complaining; Ronan always made it worth his while.

It was only afterwards—after they’d showered, after Adam had been fussed over by Opal, after Ronan had made them all breakfast, when they were washing the dishes together—that Ronan finally asked the question.

“So,” he said, handing Adam a plate to dry. “Not that I’m complaining, but you gonna tell me what you’re doing here? It’s Friday. You have class.” He gasped dramatically. “Adam _Parrish_. Did you get kicked out of _school?_ Because that would be _awesome_.”

Adam scowled. “Ronan, that would be a disaster, but thanks. Good to know I have your support.”

Ronan laughed and flicked bubbles from the washing up bowl at Adam. “Always.”

Adam shrugged, nonchalant, although he was anything but. “I only have one class on Fridays, and it got cancelled this week. I wanted to see you, and it’s. . .” He trailed off, and could feel himself blushing. In a smaller voice, he added, “It’s Valentine’s Day tomorrow.”

Ronan, who had just finished drying his hands, froze. He tossed the towel aimlessly behind him, and when he looked back to Adam a very slow smile was spreading across his face.

“Parrish,” he said. “Are you telling me that you drove all this way on a whim just so that you could surprise me for _Valentine’s Day?”_

Adam groaned and covered his face with his hands. “It sounds lame when you put it that way.”

Ronan laughed, but it was a kind sound, nothing mocking to it. “Adam, no, it’s not.” He gently pried Adam’s hands away from his face and pressed a kiss to each palm. “I thought _I_ was the romantic one.”

“You _are_. I’m not very good at grand gestures,” Adam admitted, thinking back to the potential dream mix-up from earlier.

Ronan cupped Adam’s face in his hands and kissed his forehead. “You’re better than you think.” He stepped back and took Adam’s hand, leading him through the kitchen to the hall. “C’mon. Let’s go for a walk.”

***

Even for February it was unseasonably cold, so once Ronan and Adam returned from their brief walk around the grounds, they spent the rest of the day in front of the fire. They remained in each other’s orbits, always touching in some capacity, making up for lost time.

Opal read aloud from an old edition of Alice in Wonderland, and Chainsaw pottered around on the floor, looking through the trashcan for paper to rip up and just generally making a mess.

In the early evening Ronan detached himself from Adam’s side to go and sort something to eat and Adam dozed on the sofa. Ronan woke him up again a little later by running a hand through his hair, a much more polite awakening than he had been given in the morning.

They ate a mountain of pasta each then they shared a carton of ice-cream. Full and happy, they returned to the living room where they curled up together and Adam attempted to stay awake through a movie. He wasn’t all that successful, but an attempt had been made and that was the important thing.

Later on when the house was quiet and the only light came from the dying embers of the fire, Adam opened his eyes. His head was pillowed on Ronan’s chest, whose arms were loose around him.

“Ro,” he said hoarsely, too tired to finish Ronan’s name.

“Bed?” Ronan asked.

Adam nodded and got heavily to his feet. He went upstairs ahead of Ronan and brushed his teeth and got dressed for bed.

He was already wrapped up in bed when Ronan finally joined him, but he was at least still awake. Ronan got into bed quietly, and they both lay on their sides, facing each other. Ronan started tracing Adam’s eyebrow and down his cheek with his fingertips, and Adam clutched loosely at Ronan’s t-shirt.

“‘M sorry I slept so much t’day,” he murmured, dropping vowels all over the place.

“That’s okay,” Ronan whispered back, and he kissed the tip of Adam’s nose. “I’m just so fucking happy you’re here.”

“Me too. Hey, it’s after midnight, right?” Ronan nodded and Adam smiled. “Happy Valentine’s Day.”

Ronan snorted so softly it was barely more than a puff of air. “You _sap_ , Parrish.”

“Mhm. You bring it out of me.”

Ronan smiled the softest smile he had in his arsenal; it was one of Adam’s personal favourites. “Have I told you I love you today?”

“You have,” Adam said. He already felt more awake. “But I could stand to hear it again.”

“I love you.” This was punctuated by a kiss to Adam’s forehead. “Love you.” His cheek. “I fucking love you, Adam Parrish.” His lips, finally his lips.

“Love. . . you. . . too,” Adam managed to get out between kisses, each growing more urgent than the next.

He rolled on top of Ronan, who smirked against his lips. “Thought you were tired, Parrish.”

“Not so much anymore.”

And then all conversation went out of the window.

***

When Adam woke up in the morning, Ronan was already awake and sitting upright in the bed. He was chewing on his leather bands and he grinned when he saw that Adam was awake. He leaned over and picked something off the floor, then plonked a small hamper on the bed between them.

“Happy Valentine’s, or whatever. I dreamt you some shit.”

Adam raised his eyebrows. “On purpose?”

Ronan rolled his eyes. “ _Yes_ , asshole. Open it.”

Adam smiled and sat up properly, pulling the lid of the little hamper open. Inside he found three stuffed toys. One was a raven that bore a strong resemblance to Chainsaw and said, “Kerah!” when Adam squeezed it. One was a miniature of the albino night-horror that had scared the shit out of Adam at Boyd’s such a long time ago now. And the third was a teddy bear holding a love heart with the words _Fuck You, Parrish_ embroidered on the front in an elegant script.

Adam snorted. “Fuck you, too, Lynch.”

Ronan’s grin was savage and pleased. “There’s more,” he said.

Adam peered back into the basket. There was a pair of gloves in there and when Adam frowned and pointed out that he already had a pair, Ronan said, “Self-heating.” Adam was badly impressed.

As well as the gloves, there was another jar of the dream hand-cream, another mix-tape for the car, and a fancy looking pen.

“It doesn’t run out of ink,” Ronan said. “Or, it’s not supposed to, anyway.”

To finish it all off, littered along the bottom of the hamper were loads of sweets, those love-heart ones that usually said things like _BE MINE_ written on them. Only these were Ronan’s dream sweets, and they all said _MAGICIAN_.

Adam sat quietly as he took it all in. He absently ate two of the sweets. “Ronan,” he said at last. “This is all so much.”

Ronan shrugged and sighed. “It’s not really, though.”

“I didn’t get you anything.”

Ronan leveled a look at him. “That’s just not fucking true, is it, Adam,” he said flatly. “How much did you spend on gas to get down here?”

Adam opened his mouth on a retort, but found he didn’t have one. Ronan made an excellent point. And he had also implied that Adam’s presence was a gift, and goddamn if that wasn’t nice to hear.

“I love you,” Adam said instead of complaining.

“I know that, Einstein,” Ronan said, and he smiled. “Come on, I’m making pancakes.”

***

It started snowing that afternoon. Thick flakes in a fast flurry that took no more than half an hour to completely cover the ground outside.

Adam stood at the large window in the living room watching it fall, a blanket wrapped around his shoulders and his hands cupped around a cup of coffee. He distantly thought he should be panicking; this could be a problem. But he was so content that he couldn’t bring himself to care.

“Hey,” came Ronan’s voice, approaching on Adam’s hearing side, as he could always be trusted to do. “I don’t want to alarm you, Parrish, but there is a decent chance you get snowed in. I’m not having you drive back tomorrow if it’s like this.”

Adam forced himself to think about the week ahead. Ideally, of course, he _did_ need to leave the following day. He had classes on Monday. He had work. But then again, he couldn’t help the weather.

“Adam?” Ronan said when Adam didn’t immediately reply, and Adam could hear the thinly veiled concern. Ronan was probably thinking how this might stop Adam ever doing anything spontaneous like this again during the school year, just in case. He was probably thinking that Adam would deem this an absolute disaster, and the Adam of a year ago probably _would_ have done.

Adam shrugged. “Can’t be helped,” he said.

“But. . . but you’ll miss class.” Ronan’s brow was furrowed and Adam reached up his thumb to smooth it out. He could email his professors. He could catch up on any work missed. It wasn’t the end of the world.

“Worse things have happened, Ronan,” Adam said. He was going to get extra time with Ronan. _Way_ worse things had happened.

Ronan raised his eyebrows. “Well,” he said, then he laughed. “Okay then.” He took Adam’s coffee, put it on the windowsill, then kissed him breathless.

When he pulled away his eyes were bright and shining.

“Suit up, Parrish. Let’s make a snowman.”

**Author's Note:**

> sometimes i get daringly close to writing smut and then i chicken out. SORRY LADS i just can't do it it's not my thing ¯\\_(ツ)_/¯
> 
> also, if you by any chance are reading my ongoing fic There Are Wrecking Balls Inside Us (and you should) and you're here wondering why i've written this disgusting pile of fluff instead of the latest chapter, it's because i WANTED to write this disgusting pile of fluff but don't worry the chapter will go up on friday. (in theory.)
> 
> <3


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